"This environmentally beneficial project is a great example of UK's commitment to applied research that will directly affect the people of Kentucky. Partnering with industry such as LG&E Energy allows UK to leverage its resources and compete for additional federal funding.”

- Wendy Baldwin,
UK vice president for research

Jan. 23, 2003 (Lexington, Ky.) -- The University of Kentucky and LG&E Energy Corp. are partnering on what has been called the ultimate recycling project. Their goal is to reduce the amount of landfill space needed to store ash from coal-burning power plants.

To accomplish this, researchers at the UK Center for Applied Energy Research (CAER) will use $4 million in funds from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to develop a facility at the LG&E plant in Ghent, Ky., to turn coal ash into a cement substitute. Cement manufacturing is one of the highest generators of carbon dioxide of any industrial process. Substituting ash for cement could lead to reductions of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

LG&E put up $3 million of its own funds for the project, and UK $1 million.

"This environmentally beneficial project is a great example of UK's commitment to applied research that will directly affect the people of Kentucky," said Wendy Baldwin, UK vice president for research. "Partnering with industry such as LG&E Energy allows UK to leverage its resources and compete for additional federal funding.”

“This grant is a reflection of 10 years of UK research in combination with the confidence and cooperation of one of Kentucky’s great corporations,” said CAER associate director Tom Robl, a principal investigator on the project.

Jack Groppo of CAER, also a principal investigator, called it “the ultimate recycling project.”